Baseball Fever

They say that we go back to the things we loved as a pre-teen, and maybe that explains why I’ve taken to Phillies baseball in recent years. I recall watching games on a second television set with my brother on summer evenings because others in our household were watching the 1970 sit-coms on the other set.

On the team, back in those days, I cheered on players like Mike Schmidt, Larry Bowa, Greg Luzinski, and yes, Don Money.

A few years ago, I discovered that Money lived locally and later on, that his grandson, Buddy Kennedy, played baseball at the same high school where Mike Trout came up—Millville Senior High.

I have kept up with Kennedy’s path since he was signed to the Arizona Diamondbacks. I was really happy to hear earlier this year that Arizona had traded him to the Phillies.

In talking with our writer Bill Sokolic this week, Kennedy said that it’s been his dream to play for the team that he grew up watching. He doesn’t know when—or even whether—he’ll get called up to the majors and get to play at Citizens Bank Park alongside Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, and Kyle Schwarber, but I’m going to make a prediction: Buddy, it’s going to happen! I’ll even venture to say that it’s going to happen before the end of this season.

And I’ll be watching!